Yep, I know I'm becoming very cynical about anything related to the "gummint," but I can't help but see this quiet introduction of yet another law as nothing more than an excuse to extort more money from people in fines.

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse," I'm sure they'll say.

So just how the heck is everyone supposed to know about these thousands of new regulations? Even the lawyers can barely keep up with the ones in their own specialist fields.

At least Dick Turpin didn't try to pretend that what he did was anything but highway robbery!

Dick Turpin, famous Essex highwayman, was apprehended and publicly hung for murder, robbery, horse stealing, shooting a chicken and sending an unfranked letter, at York on April 10 1739. Actually, he hung himself. After making a speech and chatting with the hangman for half an hour, he jumped off the ladder in his own good time. This was before the control-freaks ruined a bloody good day out. He was buried at St. George's, York, dug up that night by body-snatchers, found hidden in a surgeon's garden, carried back through the streets on a plank by the mob and reburied in unslaked lime about 15 feet deep*! Those were the days!